Security Flaw No Longer Remedial Found In the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 IC
The Ledger Donjon security group has discovered a serious flaw in the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 mobile processor. The researchers performed a successful electromagnetic attack that gives them complete access to the device when loading the Boot ROM. Because of the hardware nature, this issue cannot be remedied by software patches.
Nature of Exploitation
The vulnerability exposes a base flaw in the way the boot process is handled for the processor. Using electromagnetic insertion tools that can be easily accessed to disrupt the boot controller, they can:
- Read the Boot ROM.
- Rewrite memory.
- Execute arbitrary code with EL3 (maximum) privileges.
That kind of access conceals it from the standard Android system privileges, allowing someone with physical access to it to bypass whatever security measures the system has.
Impacts on Solana Seeker and Crypto Security
These results have serious consequences for any devices based on the Dimensity 7300, including the Solana Seeker cryptocurrency smartphone, making private-key storage on such devices unsafe. An attacker with physical possession of the phone can exploit this hardware flaw to extract that sensitive cryptographic data.
Smartphones or Hardware Wallets
Ledger insists the ubiquitous smartphone-even produced through advanced manufacturing processes such as the 4nm-contains a general lack of protections against physical attacks on hardware. The researchers had found that storing cryptographic keys would be wholly safe only on specialized hardware wallets embedded with dedicated security chips. The self-custodial wallet model from using smartphones poses great dangers since smartphones can be accessed through physical intrusion.
